Gordon Cooper participated in Project Mercury, the first American manned mission, from 1958 until 1963. Even prior, he claimed to see flying saucers spying on the aircraft test fields. He also said he spotted a U.F.O. over Germany in 1951.

“I believe that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets, which are a little more technically advanced than we are on Earth. “We may first have to show them that we have learned how to resolve our problems by peaceful means rather than warfare, before we are accepted as fully qualified universal team members. Their acceptance will have tremendous possibilities of advancing our world in all areas.”

3. Deke Slayton

Slayton was also part of Project Mercury. After, he served as NASA’s director of flight crew operations. He backs up Cooper’s claim about the U.F.O. over Germany in 1951.

About the incident, he said:

“It looked like a saucer sitting at a 45-degree angle. I didn’t have any cameras otherwise I would have shot some pictures. At that time — for whatever reason — it just took off climbing and just accelerated and disappeared.”

4. Brian O’Leary

Although he never made it into space, Brian O’Leary was named for a possible Mars Mission in the 1960’s. He left NASA to become a physics professor at Princeton University.

Later, O’Leary had a near death experience which shifted his perspective of the planet.

“There is abundant evidence that we are being contacted. Civilizations have been monitoring us for a very long time and that their appearance is bizarre from any type of traditional materialistic Western point of view.”